Letter: Offshore wind power worth N.J. investment

Mike Proto’s Sept. 3 letter criticizing the Fisherman’s Energy offshore wind proposal points to the high relative cost of offshore wind energy as a reason not to proceed with the project.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club Jeff Tittle, Assemblyman John Burzichelli and Celeste Riley, stand in front of the empty Paulsboro Marine Terminal, to urging Gov. Chris Christie to act on creating wind energy jobs in New Jersey Monday afternoon. August 27. 2012. (Staff Photo by Tim Hawk/Gloucester County Times)

The writer lauds the low price of natural gas and laments New Jersey’s $100 million subsidy for wind energy.

What Proto fails to mention is that, according to the nonpartisan Environmental Law Institute, fossil fuels were subsidized by the U.S. government at roughly $72 billion from 2000-2008. Most of these subsidies are permanent.

On the other hand, renewable fuels as a whole were subsidized at $29 billion during those years, with most of those funds being temporary. Given those numbers, $100 million doesn’t seem like much for a source of electricity that does not pollute, does not cause earthquakes, does not release greenhouse gases, does not send toxic radioactive wastewater to our unprepared treatment plants, creates jobs and is generated right here in New Jersey.

Any comparison of the cost of the Fisherman’s Energy offshore wind proposal with that of natural gas by those opposing government subsidies should take into account the amount that natural gas production is subsidized by the government.